Agenda item

The Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Health Integration presented a report on the Care Quality Commission (CQC) Assurance and Improvement Update.

The CQC assessed local authority performance in the delivery of adult social care responsibilities. A self-assessment and an improvement plan was developed to prepare for the assessment, with the self-assessment setting out what the council was doing well and improvements that needed to be made.  The Improvement Plan set out the outcomes that the council would aim to achieve in the future for adult social care. Both the self-assessment and an improvement plan were structured around four themes that the CQC would review:

- Working with people;

- Providing support;

- Ensuring safety; and

- Leadership.

In response to questions from the Committee, the CQC Programme Lead, and the Operational Director advised that:

- It was unknown exactly how many residents within the borough needed social care, however there were reports and surveys undertaken that could give an estimate;

- There was a predicted overspend of £400,000 in adult social care for the third quarter. The cost for providing social care to residents would vary from case to case with and would increase for residents with either complex needs or younger people with long-term disabilities. Inflation also had an impact on the cost of social care as care providers had increased their costs; however, the CQC Programme Lead, and the Operational Director assured the committee that the in-year budget pressures were being mitigated to ensure budgets aligned with those allocated and there were no further cost pressures;

- The borough currently had around 4,000 carers. It was estimated from that there were an additional 10,000 hidden carers within the borough, which would usually consist of family members providing care. Training had been provided to healthcare professionals and frontline staff to assist in identifying hidden carers. In 2023/23 there were 579 new carers identified;

- The information on health inequalities was taken from the Joint Strategic Needs Assessment prepared by Public Health which in turn was taken from the Public Health England report on inequalities. The reports included reviews of mental health issues for both Black Caribbean and Black African ethnic backgrounds and had established trends;

- There were information and data sharing protocols in place that would be an obstacle in data sharing from the new electronic systems between the Local Trust and GP practices, however it would still be possible. The health service was exploring the possibility of utilising Pharmacies in terms of passing data on through the system.

- The methodology of the self-assessment of Adult Social care survey was set by the Department of Health and Social Care. It was sent to a representative sample of residents that received health and social care.

- With regards to residents’ satisfaction with their care and support. 60-70% of users were extremely satisfied, 23% were quite satisfied, 9% were neither satisfied or dissatisfied, 2% were quite dissatisfied and, 2% were extremely dissatisfied.

- Regarding monitoring of the amount of time carers spend in residents’ homes, the Committee were advised that care agents implemented a call monitoring system that would monitor the amount of time a carer would spend at residents’ homes. The carer would need to call the system to log the times they would start and finish at a resident’s home. The system would identify any trends of carers spending more or less time at the homes and this would be reviewed by the Quality Assurance Team;

- There were 1511 safeguarding concerns raised in 2022-23. Any safeguarding concerns would be investigated. however, sometimes the concern would not meet the criteria of safeguarding;

- In light of the Lucy Letby case, the CQC Programme Lead, and the Operational Director assured the committee that there was a whistleblowing policy in place within the care sector. Healthcare workers had been made aware of the policy; and

- The Cabinet Member updated the committee that there was some movement in inclusive growth with regard to providing specialist housing for vulnerable people. A more flexible approach to major adaptations to properties was suggested and the Cabinet Member reiterated that any work towards specialist housing was still in early stages.

Members posed a number of further questions, which the CQC Programme Lead would respond to in writing at a later time.

The report was noted.